Angelic Chronicles
by RiverSideOtter
Summary: AU-ish. Set in the Angelic Layer universe. Kurogane wants to make it to the national Angelic Layer competion. He's made it to the Regionals, but will what will he make of the other contestant from his prefecture?
1. Chapter 1

"Welcome one and all to the final match of the Chiba Prefecture Qualifiers. The angel to win this battle will go on to the Kanto regionals!" The crowd roared in anticipation as the purple hued MC stalled for time as the two Deus' made final checks on their angels. Deft fingers checked joints and sharp eyes scrutinised any potential damage to the laminate-resin bodies. Neither Deus looked at each other till they sat in their elliptical chairs as they rose into position with their angels in their hands.

"Enter your angels!" The crowd went wild, playing to the MC's excitement.

"Ginryu, strike true and with purpose!" yelled the boy in the West corner, some of his spiked short hair falling over his visor. He regarded his opponent as his angel made its stoic entrance into the layer. She seemed over excited, probably didn't think she'd make it this far. He had to admit that, until the Qualifiers, he hadn't heard the name 'Fluorite' before. What a stupid name to enter the contest with, why didn't she just enter using her own name? He had: 'Suma'. Ginryu stood on the layer expectantly looking up at the girl and her angel, his crimson hakama and black kimono top blowing in the generated breeze.

Fluorite looked down at the waiting angel; he was wearing a helmet in the shape of a black dragons head, silver horns and moustache tendrils flowing out of the black. Blue eyes paid special attention to the clawed gloves on the small hands.  
"Even if you fall you'll raise again, Pheonix!" East corner called out cheerfully, how she could see with her blonde tendrils practically obscuring the visor was a mystery to the boy. Ignoring the Dues, his scarlet eye took in the small angel.

The angel Pheonix's hair was split into three colours, a vibrant blue at the tips and was orange-red for the most part, but blue and red were separated by a yellow layer. Her dress was a simple light blue but had an intricate white pattern. He couldn't see from his high perch but the pattern took the form of a phoenix and wrapped around her body. Her sleeves seemed to be separate from her dress; they were the same blue but faded to white the further down they went. They were much longer than her arms.

"With both competitors on the layer, we can't hold them back any longer! It's time for Angelic Fight!" The cheers rose as the MC called for the fight to begin.

Ginryu made a swift run towards the lighter angel, swiping at her with his claws when he got in reach, and as if floating, Pheonix silently dodged the talons. Without stopping, Ginryu pivoted on small geta and kicked at the colourful girl, who yet again dodged.

Suma was slowly getting annoyed, not that he let it show. _Aren't you even going to try and strike back Fluorite? _He changed tactics, running circles around the innocent looking Pheonix who just stood there wide eyed, her blonde Dues watching with a careful smile.

Ginryu suddenly jumped into the air, obscuring himself in the bright arena lights, swinging his heal down perfectly aimed to connect dead centre with Pheonix's head.

The crowd went silent.

Pheonix was standing on the other side of the layer smiling politely at Ginryu. She waved.

Even the MC is speechless; the buzzer goes for the first half.

"…Whoa! What an amazing first half! Despite Ginryu's best effort, Pheonix has come out without a scratch on her. What will Ginryu's strategy be for the second half?!" The crowd was half mad with excitement! This was the first time that an entire round had passed without a single hit taking place!

The second round started and soon Pheonix's movements began to make sense when she finally went to strike Ginryu. As a light weight class, she'd have a better chance of knocking her opponent off the layer when they were close to the edge. Ginryu darted away before she had the chance to get close enough to reach him. Ginryu was a medium weight class, so knocking him off the layer wouldn't have been out of the question.  
Suma made sure to keep in as close to the centre as possible.

Coming down to the final minute of the second round, both Ginryu and Pheonix were trying their hardest to make contact with the other, to at least knock enough points off the other in order to be the winner.

5…4…3…2

1

The buzzer sounded. Neither angel had landed a hit… The now rabid crowd was screaming out the name of the angel they favoured hoping they would win just because they wanted it so.

For a moment the MC said nothing, his finger was pushed against his ear piece.  
"A-Amazing!" Again the crowd roared.  
"Not a single hit was landed! Both of you will be going to the Kanto finals!"

"What?!" Suma growled. He knew both winner and runner up went to the Kanto games but there were rankings that needed to be known. How could you win a game when you don't even hit your opponent? It had to be breaking the rules... but then again he did consult his earpiece. The fans didn't seem to care one way or the other, and Fluorite seemed to be more excited than she was before. Suma rolled his eyes at her, not that she would have seen it.

"Suma!" the blonde came running up to him after the match "Thank you for a great match" she beamed.  
"I don't consider it a match, dodging like that looks more like dancing" he replied gruffly.  
"Boo, Boo Suma!" she pouted "I thought that we had a great match…er.. dance?"  
Suma looked Fluorite up and down, she was wearing a high neck sleeveless top with long baggy arm warmer type sleeves and shorts that could only just be seen under her top.  
"...Are you wearing enough pink?" Suma squinted at the outfit. Fluorite pouted for a second but smiled again  
"Silly, Suma. This is Lilac, Lilac and gold!" he giggled, Suma stared at him in disbelief.

"…Okay.. I'm leaving now, good bye." He turned to leave hoping that he wouldn't have to talk to her during the Kanto games.  
"Suma! What's your name?! I'm Fai D. Fluorite!" Suma paused. _That was her real name… she's got to be joking. _Without turning around Suma replied.  
"Suma, Kurogane"  
"Bai Bai Kuro-chan!" Kurogane spun on the spot to see Fai waving idiotically at him before running off.

Kurogane felt the urge to kill.


	2. Chapter 2

Kurogane was only faintly aware that his alarm was going off

Kurogane was only faintly aware that his alarm was going off. He shuffled under the sheets till he was facing his alarm clock. It was insisting that it was 6:45 am with its blue luminous numerals; the light reminded him of Fluorite's sharp eyes. Feeling dirty, Kurogane dragged himself out of bed to have a shower. He heard his room mate mumbling something about turning the alarm off; Kurogane chose to ignore him.

Clean and ready for the day, Kurogane made his way to the front door. He had things that had to be done before class started.

"Hold it…" the voice was muffled but still quite audible. "You want to be turning your alarm off, Kurogane."

Kurogane leaned around the corner to see his friends head buried under a pillow, tense with annoyance. He never did figure how this guy could make his voice so clear and hazardous while having his head covered so completely.

"Wait, Fuuma! Are we so close, you can read my thoughts?!" a sarcastic grin was on his face. Compared to Kurogane, Fuuma had a smaller build but was still roughly the same height. They'd known each other since high school and were often thought to be brothers, because there was always this sense of brotherly affection between them. Fuuma rolled over in bed then sat up.

"Why do you have to be up so early in the morning anyway?" he asked, in tired annoyance.

"I'm going to the library to study," Kurogane replied, Fuuma gave him a flat look, he knew Kurogane well enough to see through his lies.

"Yeah right, and I'm not gay. You're going to rent a table at Piffle world again." Fuuma rubbed at his eyes then ran a hand through his hair.

"…layer…" Kurogane mumbled a correction. "If you knew where I was going then why ask?" He turned and walked out of the door, leaving Fuuma in the room with the persistent alarm clock.

Kurogane hated to admit it, but Fluorite had gotten to him. He didn't like how Ginryu couldn't lay a single finger on Phoenix, so every morning since their match two weeks ago Kurogane would go to Piffle World to get in more training before classes, he refused to lose to that girl he couldn't touch. 

"Kurogane's so lost in his own world that he skipped classes!" Sang a small girl, while leaning over the layer Kurogane rented. Ginryu went still as Kurogane's attention went from the Angel to the girl. She had a perpetually smiling face and pink hair, so bright it must have been freshly dyed. Behind her he could see the others.

"Did I really miss class?" He asked Fuuma, who was taking off his yellow tinted reading glasses.

"Sumomo, get off the layer," Fuuma didn't take his eyes away from Kurogane as he reprimanded the short girl who without a second thought stood up and with a controlled fall, landed in the dues' chair behind her. The other girl in the group gave the impression she wasn't impressed with the situation.

"It's 12:30.We just came from applied English."

Kurogane made a disdainful noise.

"It's your own fault for not paying attention anyway," snapped the younger man, who was standing behind Fuuma, Fuuma looked back at him.

"Now, Kamui…" Fuuma began in a deliberately calm voice.

"No, I don't see why we're here. Kotoko and I didn't even want to come!" Kamui had an angry pout on his face.

"Don't get me involved in your stupid arguments," Kotoko warned, crossing her arms, which only caused Kamui's face to get redder now that he had no back up. Kurogane turned the table off. Even though he wanted to practice for a little longer, with everyone here any further practise would be impossible. He knew his friends well enough.

Kamui would pout and complain to try and guilt Fuuma into paying attention to him, which always worked. Sumomo would quickly get restless and start annoying people and Kotoko would tell her off for being an idiot or for being too boisterous. Half of which was already starting to happen; Kurogane could see Fuuma discreetly running a nail across the inside of Kamui's wrist.

"…Okay let's go to lunch then. Kotoko, it's your turn this week." Kurogane glanced at Fuuma to see Kamui jerking his hand away sharply. He chose to turn his attention back to Kotoko who was currently ignoring Sumomo, who was tugging on her sleeve.

"How about the Cat's Eye that opened up near the Uni last month?"

"Yes! That place is awesome!" Sumomo added, punctuating her statement with a twirl.

"Cat's eye? I don't remember seeing it." Kurogane went through his memory but couldn't remember it.

"Probably because you spend more time looking at dolls than anything else. I'm going now," Kamui snapped again and walked out by himself. Everyone looked at Fuuma.

"What?" Fuuma looked like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"What did you do to him _now_?" Kurogane enquired, eye brow raised.

"Kamui-chan's not normally this grumpy," Sumomo added. Fuuma gave an embarrassed laugh, and then sighed.

"He… May or may not have seen me… Checking out a guy the other day."

"Oh, Fuuma…" Kotoko started, "You know he's the jealous type."

"I know! But I couldn't help it! He was some blonde foreigner. I was only looking!" His voice begged for forgiveness.

"Don't tell us, we don't care who you drool over." Kurogane smirked at Fuuma's slightly pained look. "It's Kamui you should be apologising to."

"I've been apologising since he caught me." Fuuma shrugged woefully as he turned to leave, everyone following.

"He he he, Hell hath no fury"

Kurogane and Kotoko snickered at Sumomo's words.

"Don't you start Momo" Fuuma groaned.

The Cat's Eye had a western café/tea house theme to it, with the two waitresses dressed in cute knee length black dresses with white aprons, and the two waiters in black pressed trousers, white shirts and black vests. Fuuma made sure to ignore them.

They chose a table and sat down, the girls talking about how cute the place was. Kurogane rolled his eyes, looked at the menu and groaned inwardly. Eating with Chopsticks seemed out of the question today.

"Ah!... let's go. I don't want to be here anymore." Kamui sounded agitated, He was glaring at something across the room.

"But we just got here, Kamui-chan!" Sumomo sulked. Kurogane followed Kamui's gaze, but all he saw was a blonde waiter bent over a table.

"Is that-"Kurogane began to ask.

"That hussy! How dare he serve where I am eating."

Fuuma risked a glance at the object of Kamui's loathing then made a failed attempt to place a reassuring hand on Kamui's arm.

"You, don't touch me!" Kurogane felt sorry for Fuuma - until he remembered how much of a flirt and jerk he could be sometimes.

"So that's him, then?" Kotoko asked with an amused look on her face. She and Sumomo looked over then quickly looked back to the table - he was coming over. Kurogane's eyes widened to the blonde coming over.

"Welcome to the Cat's Eye. Are you ready to order?" he asked, his blue eyes sparkling. Kurogane realised something as he noticed how tight the uniform was.

"Y-You're a guy?!" Fai looked at Kurogane, sudden recognition in his eyes.

"Oh! Kuro-puu, I didn't realise it was you." He smiled brightly at him. Everyone at the table looked at Kurogane then Fai, except for Kamui who continued to keep a deadly eye on Fuuma.

"You're a guy?" Kurogane repeated. Fai's face didn't change.

"I never said I wasn't, Kuro-silly."

"You didn't act like one after the match!... and what the hell is with those nicknames?!"

"I act how I act. It's not my fault Kuro-stiff can't tell the difference. But you all must be hungry, what are we hungry for?"

Everyone made their order, and to everyone's quiet admiration Fai didn't even bat an eyelid when Kamui ask for his head on a plate and called him a harlot. Kurogane got the impression that Fai had that effect on significant others. Kurogane was quiet for the most part of lunch, occasionally watching Fai when ever his got within view which seemed to be often. Kamui soon returned to normal after Fuuma whispered something into his ear, and was discussing an up coming festival with the girls. Fuuma moved closer to Kurogane.

"How could you not notice that he was a guy? I mean, come on." He spoke in hushed tones so as not to be heard by certain people.

"At the match he was wearing pink…lavender…whatever, and was acting… well, acting like Sumomo."

Fuuma looked at Sumomo, then casually scanned the room to watch Fai for a moment.

"… I see what you mean." Then he spoke normally again "So, Kurogane, you've gotten yourself all worked up because of some boy?"

All eyes were on Kurogane, who got promptly annoyed with the direction that Fuuma was planning on taking the conversation. He stood up and placed 1000 yen on the table.

"I'm going back to the dorm." He got up and walked out. One of the blonde waitresses politely called after him to 'come again', but he ignored her as he walked out alone. 

Someone else took note that Kurogane had left, and the only person who knew this was Kamui who was watching the boy intently.


End file.
